1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computers, and more specifically, the invention relates to the management of folders on computers.
2. Background Art
Most computer systems store data by physically encoding it as a data file on a storage device such as a hard magnetic disk. The software tools used to perform this storage and the subsequent access to, or manipulation of, the data file, are provided by a routine called a file system manager, which usually included in an operating system.
An operating system is a program or collection of programs, which allow control of the computer's physical devices. In a UNIX™-based system, the operating system interacts directly with the hardware, providing common services to programs and isolating the software and users from the hardware idiosyncrasies of a particular computer system. For example, the operating system may coordinate the sending of information to a printer to be printed, or commence the operation of an application program. Operating systems also have some manner of interface to communicate with the user, generally via a command line on the computer's monitor where the user can enter an instruction from the operating system's instruction set, or via a graphic user interface which presents a simpler means of entering the same kinds of instructions.
The file system management functions of the operating system (or simply, the file system manager) provides a standardized means of storing and accessing data on storage subsystems, being responsible for handling all requests to open, close, read, and write files. These data files are referred to by symbolic filenames, which tell the operating system where the data can be physically found. HPS, FAT, FAT32, NTFS and HPFS are common file systems used on personal computers.
In many computer systems, data files are sorted into a structure of folders, directories, subdirectories or similar categories, making them easier to identify and locate. In these systems, each file has a unique path name which identifies its location within the file structure, access to the data generally starting at the top and proceeding through the levels of the hierarchy. Most operating systems use these types of tree-like or hierarchical filing systems.
UNIX and MS-DOS computers, for example, have a “root” directory from which all other directories or sub-directories branch out. The syntax of the path name is usually a sequence of directory or filenames separated by the “/” character, each subsequent entry representing another level of the tree.
Folders can take up a considerable amount of DASD. Over time, users build up a massive hierarchy of folders. Through archiving and document expiration, many folders are empty and more than likely not needed. A user can go through and manually open each folder to see if it is empty, determine if it is needed and then delete the folder. This can be a labor-intensive activity, which most people will not do. In many computers, there is a huge amount of wasted DASD due to empty folders. Within many businesses and other enterprises, removing old folders will lower costs and provide other advantages.